


Hoping We'll Eat Cake By The Ocean

by storiesinthedark



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Alternate Universe - Hotel, Anal Sex, Falling In Love, Hotel Sex, Lust at First Sight, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:15:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22044691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesinthedark/pseuds/storiesinthedark
Summary: Spending his summer at the front desk of the Capital Hotel had not been exactly what Andre had in mind when his parents said he could stay in the U.S. as long as he had a job. He had imagined himself waiting tables in California, or working as an office assistant in some busy New York office, not answering phones and checking in guests at the front desk of a hotel that looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 1980s in Maryland of all places.But, here he is. Five years later and still working for the same hotel. At least he has a job. He guesses there are worse fates than having a place to stay, having some friends, and having a job. And at least it’s on the beach, he supposes that’s a plus.
Relationships: Philipp Grubauer/Andre Burakovsky
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Hoping We'll Eat Cake By The Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my IRL husband for being the beta on this...because I was in a jam and desperate...

The phone rings again at the front desk for what feels like the millionth time, pulling him from his thoughts. Andre sighs at the thought of answering yet another phone call from a lost or late guest. Maybe if he ignores it long enough, it’ll stop ringing altogether. He doesn’t get the luxury of finding out.

“Answer the phone,” an annoyed Swedish accented voice calls from the office behind the front desk. The voice, of course, belongs to Nicke, his boss and one of the owners of the hotel he’s currently employed at.

“But--” Andre starts. 

“No,” Nicke cuts him off. “Your job is to answer the phone. That is what we are paying you to do.” 

“Just do what he says,” a Russian accented voice, Alex, Nicke’s “business partner,” chimes in. “If you don’t, you know he’ll cut your hours again.” 

Andre groans and rolls his eyes. “Fine,” he whines as the phone stops ringing. Saved at least from that particular guest and their questions.

Spending his summer at the front desk of the Capital Hotel had not been exactly what Andre had in mind when his parents said he could stay in the U.S. as long as he had a job. He had imagined himself waiting tables in California, or working as an office assistant in some busy New York office, not answering phones and checking in guests at the front desk of a hotel that looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 1980s in Maryland of all places. 

But, here he is. Five years later and still working for the same hotel. At least he has a job. He guesses there are worse fates than having a place to stay, having some friends, and having a job. And at least it’s on the beach, he supposes that’s a plus.

“More working, less daydreaming,” Nicke calls from the office. Andre sighs, shaking his head, and picks up the mail that he’s been letting accumulate on the counter for the last several days, beginning to sort it into various piles. 

The piles are large and they take up more of the front desk than Andre anticipated, which is definitely the reason that the service bell startles him from the pile of mail he’s sorting on the floor. He hopes he doesn’t resemble a cartoon character too much with the way the papers went flying from his hands, but he’s pretty sure he isn’t that lucky. He pushes himself up from the floor, leaving the papers scattered and brushes his shorts before starting his memorized script for the offending party. 

“Good afternoon, welcome to the Capital Hotel. How can I help you?” Andre says, looking over to the computer and pulling up the reservation system that he’s going to need.

The guest who rang the bell laughs, and when Andre finally looks away from the computer screen he finds himself breathless. The man is gorgeous - absolutely gorgeous - and Andre’s seen some very handsome guests move through the hotel during all the years that he’s worked here. Nick. Connor. Christian. He can name them all. But, none of them compare to this man.

He finally remembers to shut his mouth after a moment. Hopefully, the man didn’t notice him staring. 

“Hello, yes. I am here to check-in. My name is Philipp Grubauer,” the man -- Philipp -- says. 

Andre opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He takes a deep breath and tries again. “Lic-license and credit card, please.” Oh good. Nicke will be pleased at least that his training is so ingrained it takes over when he’s nervous. 

“Here you are.” Philipp smiles and produces his license and credit from his wallet, which Andre accepts to do all of the necessary paperwork to get the man checked in to his room.

“Thank you,” Andre replies. He clicks through the various screens on his computer and inputs Philipp’s information. “Now, as you’ve already paid for your room, the hold on your card will just be for any incidentals. How many room keys will you be needing?” 

“That’s fine, and just one,” Philipp says. 

Andre nods and clicks through a few more computer screens so he can program a new key for a room. “And there you are,” he says, handing Philipp’s driver’s license and credit card back to him along with a room key. “Room 310. Internet password is right here. Have a pleasant stay, and let me know if you need anything.” He points to a place on the hotel sleeve that indicates as such. 

“Thank you,” Philipp says, smiling and Andre can feel himself melting into the floor. He barely holds himself together as Philipp turns with his suitcase and heads toward the elevator. 

He breathes a heavy sigh once the elevator doors have closed and Philipp is no longer in sight. God. He doesn’t even know this man and he’s certain that he would do anything - and he means anything - for him.

\---

He’s down on the beach the next morning before his shift at the front desk starts, talking with T.J., the lifeguard, when he sees Philipp again. He knows T.J. was saying something important - he’s pretty sure it was important anyway - but now he can’t focus at all. 

All he can see right now is Philipp walking along the boardwalk in his bright blue swim trunks with a white linen shirt carrying a cup of coffee from the Coffee Beanery. His earbuds are in and he’s carrying a bag clearly meant to be a beach bag, but it’s definitely not one. Has this man ever taken a beach vacation? Doesn’t matter. Andre can’t stop staring. He knows he should, but man is Philipp just all kinds of hot. 

Maybe he should wander over and ask him how he’s liking the weather. It is really good beach weather today, after all. The sun is shining and it’s not too hot yet. Or maybe he should recommend a better place to get coffee. Or maybe--

“Hello?” T.J. snaps his fingers in front of Andre’s face. “Babe. Where’d you go?” Fuck. He’d been daydreaming again. 

“What?” Andre says, looking around for Philipp who is now nowhere to be found. 

T.J. sighs. “You found another guest to crush on didn’t you.” It’s not a question so much as a statement, and Andre hates that he’s so easy to figure out. But when Andre doesn’t respond, T.J. continues. “Just--Be careful ok?” 

“Always,” he responds. He takes one more look around for Philipp and then pulls out his phone. “I gotta go.” He turns and heads toward the hotel for his shift.

\---

Somehow, even though he definitely sorted it two days ago, the mail has once again grown out of control. He wonders if Nicke is just hoarding mail in the office and putting it out to give him more work. That totally seems like a thing Nicke would do. 

The bell on the desk rings and he ignores it for a minute before taking a deep breath and looking up at the guest requesting his attention. He almost drops the mail still in his hand when he realizes that it’s Philipp standing there holding a brochure of some kind. He looks like he might be a little nervous. 

“Hello, what I can I help you with?” 

“Hello. Yes, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for restaurants in the area,” Philipp asks. 

Andre smiles the smile he uses whenever he’s trying to be charming. “Of course. We have a large selection of restaurants in the area. If you’re looking for a bar atmosphere, there’s one on the beach in front of the hotel that serves a great burger. If you’re looking for something a little fancier, if you walk down the boardwalk about a quarter of a mile there’s a great Italian seafood restaurant. Can I recommend anything else specifically?” 

Philipp smiles and shakes his head. “No, those are perfect. Thank you so much.” Then, he turns and heads out the door. 

“You’re welcome,” Andre calls after him, exhaling sharply when he’s finally out of sight. 

“You were flirting,” a Russian voice says from behind him. He turns around to see Alex leaning against the wall, a smirk plastered on his face. “I promise to not tell Nicke.” He pushes away from the wall and disappears into the office. 

Andre tries to come up with a response but fails before Alex has disappeared. He hadn’t been flirting. Right? It’s just a stupid crush on this guest. It’ll go away, just as he will. Just as all of the others have. 

He rolls his eyes and turns his attention back on the mail pile, which seems to have grown again, and continues sorting.

\---

Philipp appears at the front desk at least once - if not twice - a day after that to ask questions or an opinion on something. He’s only scheduled to stay for a week and in the last five days, Andre is always at the desk when he arrives. He finds it a little strange how that happens as he doesn’t even work a consistent shift, and Jakub, the other desk attendant, says he’s never seen Philipp at the desk to ask any questions. 

“It’s so strange,” Andre says, taking a swig of lemonade from the cup he’s stolen from Tom. They’re standing outside of the Ferris wheel at the end of the boardwalk pier waiting for the park to open for the day, and for Tom and Mike to start their shifts running the ride. Tom makes an outraged noise but doesn’t try to take the lemonade back. Andre’s told him that this only reinforces the behavior. 

Mike exchanges a look with Tom, eyebrows raised, and Tom gives a little shrug in return. They probably intended for it to be so subtle that Andre wouldn’t notice, but he does. Of course, he does. 

“What? What was that look?!” Andre demands upon seeing the exchange. No way will they leave him out of this...whatever this is. 

“You tell him,” Tom says, hands in the air as if he’s noping out of the conversation. 

Mike sighs. “Fine. It’s just...Andre, that sounds like flirting. Philipp sounds like he’s into you.” 

“No,” Andre says. “That can’t be. I only talk to him at the front. Where he has legitimate questions about things in the area.” 

Tom rolls his eyes. “Dude. We have smartphones. He could just look that shit up himself. There’s no reason to talk to you unless he’s locked himself out of his room or the neighbors are being too loud. Why would he need to ask you for restaurant recommendations, or whatever else he’s asking about?” 

Oh my god. OH MY GOD. Andre’s mouth hangs open. He can’t believe he’s been blind to this. Philipp is flirting back. He’ll have to test this theory. 

“I...I gotta go. Shift’s gonna start soon,” he says not waiting for a response and jogging down the boardwalk to the hotel. He’s going to be like an hour for his shift, but he’s got some planning to do before that. 

\---

“Andre,” Philipp says, jogging over from the elevator. “I have a question for you.” 

Andre smiles as he always does. “Of course. What can I help you with?” 

“I’m looking for a place to buy a new pair of flip flops. I seem to have broken mine the other day,” he says. 

“I see,” Andre replies. Now he can see exactly what Tom and Mike were talking about. This question definitely could have been answered by his phone, but Philipp chose to interact with him. He nods. “Well, Sunsations is a few blocks down on the right here. They have inexpensive flip flops. There are also a number of places on the boardwalk that sell that, though they may be a little more expensive.” 

“Ok. Thank you!” Philipp responds, but he doesn’t leave immediately. He lingers like he has another question, but can’t figure out how to ask it. 

Andre doesn’t have a problem with this as he has his own question for Philipp. “I have a question for you,” Andre says. 

“Oh?” Philipp replies, rocking back and forth on his feet. 

“Are you flirting with me?” Andre asks, glancing down at the keyboard on the desk. He hears Philipp stop rocking and Andre fiddles with one of the buttons on the keyboard to keep himself occupied. 

“Umm,” Philipp stutters out.

Andre smiles. “It’s fine. I just wanted to make sure I was reading that right.” 

Philipp sighs. “Yes. I...I think you’re very attractive. I’m sorry.” 

He feels himself preen without any prompting. Just a little bit of praise and he’s even more head over heels in love than he was before. “No, that’s ok.” 

Andre smiles and Philipp seems to relax a bit. He licks his lips. “Would...would you like to get dinner with me later tonight? When you’re finished your shift?” 

“Yes,” Andre says. 

“Ok. My room number is 310. Meet me there at 7 PM,” Philipp says. 

“Ok,” Andre responds, but before he can say anything else, Philipp turns and head quickly back toward the front doors. 

Andre can’t believe that one of his crushes is actually playing out. He’s had so many over the years and finally, he’s got a date with one of them. And he’s super hot. 

He lets out a sigh before a booming Swedish accented voice from behind him breaks his daydream. “Get back to work,” Nicke says. “I don’t pay you to stand around.” 

Andre turns around and sticks out his tongue. “Actually, that’s exactly what you pay me to do.” 

“Keep it up and it won’t be for much longer. I definitely don’t pay you to date the guests,” Nicke replies, heading toward the front door like he’s actually leaving the hotel, which feels like it almost never happens. 

“How...” Andre sputters. 

“I know everything. Just don’t fuck it up,” Nicke says, disappearing out the front door, leaving Andre with his mouth hanging wide open in shock. 

He swallows hard. Well. He guesses Nicke’s ok with this. Wouldn’t matter anyway, but at least he won’t have to deal with a discussion tomorrow morning about how disappointed Nicke is with him.

\----

He’s standing outside Philipp’s door at 6:55 PM, dressed in his nice white linen pants with a blue button-down, and he’s terrified to knock. He’s never been felt this way about any other date he’s been on, but suddenly his palms are sweaty and he’s taking short calculated breaths. For at least the third time, he readies his arm to knock before walking away to do a lap of the hallway again. Why can’t he just do this already?

He finally gets himself together, takes a deep breath, and knocks. 

It takes a few minutes for the door to open. When it does, Philipp is standing there, white button-down shirt hanging open, and bare feet sticking out under his brown linen pants. His hair with just a little bit of gel run through it to give it a style. He’s gorgeous and it takes Andre’s brain a minute to come back online after seeing him.

“I’m sorry. I’m running late,” he says, and he moves out of the way to let Andre into the room. “I’ll just be a minute.” 

Andre nods and follows him in, making sure that the door is shut behind them. He swallows and takes a deep breath, sitting on the edge of the bed in the room. “We...um...we don’t have to go out anywhere. You know. If you don’t want,” Andre offers up. He wishes he sounded surer of the suggestion, but what can he do. 

Philipp pokes his head out of the bathroom and stares at Andre. He doesn’t say anything and Andre’s worries that he’s read the situation entirely wrong. Maybe Philipp really only wants to go to dinner with him and sleeping with Andre was never in his plan. 

After a few long moments, he finally says, “What would we do instead?” He comes out of the bathroom and leans against the doorframe, a smile pulling at his lips. 

“I’m sure we could think of something,” Andre says, leaning back and looking up at Philipp through his eyelashes. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he can tell it’s working on Philipp. 

Philipp pushes off the wall and leans down over Andre, pressing their lips together, and Andre melts beneath him. This. This is what he’s been waiting for. What he’s wanted since Philipp appeared the first time at the front desk. 

“This ok?” Philipp asks when the pull apart to breathe. 

“Yes,” Andre replies, voice quiet. “Perfect.” 

Philipp smiles and Andre moves further back on the bed, making Philipp crawl on top of him to kiss him again. “Shirt off,” Andre says when they pull apart this time. Philipp smiles and Andre reaches up to start working at the buttons. He pushes it off Philipp’s shoulders and once it’s entirely off, he throws it to the floor. Then, he leans in closer and presses his mouth to Philipp’s chest, sucking a light mark into the skin. The noise Philipp makes goes straight to his cock. He’s hard almost instantly and he bucks his hips up against Philipp, which makes him moan.

It doesn’t take long for them to rid themselves of all of their clothes.

“What do you want?” Philipp asks between kissing his way down Andre’s chest. 

Andre moans. “I want you to fuck me,” he gasps. 

“Ok,” Philipp says. He places a kiss to Andre’s neck and then reaches over to the bedside table to grab the lube that’s sitting out, clearly having been used in the past few days. “Just relax.” 

Andre exhales and lets his head fall back into the mattress. “Ok.” 

Philipp slicks his fingers with the lube and warms it a little before reaching down between Andre’s leg and circling his entrance. He pushes in gently, one finger to start, and Andre’s senses start to light up. He can feel himself becoming lost and before he knows it, Philipp is rolling a condom on, lining his cock up against him and pushing in. The feeling sends shivers up his spine as Philipp is fully inside of him. 

Andre lets out a moan. “Please,” he whispers. “Move.” 

Philipp nods and pulls his hips back before sliding in again and the feeling is exquisite for Andre. It’s more than he imagined. He can feel as Philipp speeds up, clearly chasing his own release. 

“Philipp,” Andre moans. “I need--”

“I got you,” he responds, putting a hand on Andre’s cock. He starts to pull long strokes up and down the length, and soon Andre can feel himself teetering at the edge. One more pull sends him over the edge spurting long white ribbons of come across his chest. Three more thrusts have Philipp following Andre over the edge. 

He pulls out after a brief moment to catch his breath and Andre immediately misses feeling full. 

“We should order room service,” Andre says when they’ve finally pulled apart.

Philipp leans down and kisses him as he wipes him clean. “Definitely a good idea.” 

Andre rolls over and grabs the hotel phone, calling down to the kitchen and quickly placing an order for two burgers. He knows for a fact they are really the only edible thing that the kitchen staff knows how to make. Philipp snuggles in behind him once he hangs the phone up, gently pressing kisses down the back of neck. 

“I leave to go back home tomorrow,” Philipp says, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled between them.

“Ok,” Andre responds. “I mean, I wasn’t really expecting this to be anything other than what it was.” 

Philipp presses his lips together and Andre could swear that he looks like he wants to cry. “It could be,” he says. “If you want that.” 

“What?” Andre doesn’t mean for it to sound exasperated, but it kind of comes out that way. 

Philipp smiles and pulls Andre back toward him into another kiss that quickly turned heated. “We can talk about it more tomorrow before I leave.”

“Ok,” Andre says. “Ok.” 

\----

“I’m moving to Colorado,” Andre says, pressing his lips together and not blinking. It’s been a week since Philipp checked out and he’s still the only person Andre thinks about. They text all the time, enough that Nicke’s threatened to take his phone and throw it into the ocean. 

He shivers. The office is freezing for a such a breezy morning on the beach, but what did Andre really expect? Nicke is a little bit of a psycho.

Nicke looks up from his morning coffee at his desk and Andre can see Alex lean back from his computer desk in the corner to listen in as well. “What?” 

“I’m...I’m moving. I’ve decided. This is going to be my last summer here. Once the season ends, I’m going to Colorado.” There. He’s said it. It’s out in the open now and a weight feels like it’s been lifted from his chest. 

Alex smiles, but Nicke’s face remains as stoic as ever. “And what are you going to do?” 

“I...I don’t know yet, but...but, I’ll figure it out when I get there,” he says. “I just have to go.” 

Nicke nods. “Ok,” he says. “You’ll always be welcome here if you ever decide to come back.” 

Andre smiles at that. For as much as Nicke always seems like he wants to murder everyone, it’s nice to know that he likes Andre enough to give him a job again if he ever comes back. “Thank you,” he replies. 

Then he nods and leaves the office. He thinks he can hear Nicke and Alex talking about the real reason he’s leaving. Philipp. He thinks he hears Alex sigh and say “Ah, young love. Ow. Nicke you wound me,” followed by Nicke giggling and then the office door closing. He knows those two are up to no good, but can’t be bothered to think about it more than that. This is it. Three more weeks and then he’ll be in Colorado with Philipp. 

A new start. 

\----

At the end of the season, which comes quicker than he and everyone else thought it would, he packs all of his things and everyone bids him goodbye. He doesn’t come back. 


End file.
